Riley sinks depleted Blazers

December 02, 2005|BRUCE MARSHALL Tribune Staff Writer

Elkhart Central's boys meet at Riley Thursday night was submerged before the swimming even began. Part of it was due to Riley's overwhelming strength, part of it due to grade and discipline problems for Elkhart Central. The Blazers were without their entire diving team, along with a top swimmer in the lopsided 132-44 loss. The two divers with discipline problems won't be back, the top diver and swimmer with grade problems have six weeks to work on them and then possibly return. However, even with the banished team members, the outcome would have been the same, if not slightly closer. Riley's Tim Blue showed why he's one of the best in the state, winning two events, the 200-yard individual medley and the 500 freestyle. Blue also anchored two winning relay teams, the 200 medley and the 200 freestyle. Zack Stockman and Chris Pfaff also won two individual events each, and placed first on two relay teams. "This is just our second meet," said Riley coach John VanDriessche, "but I was very pleased with our level of performance, especially with the amount of training we are doing. We're working them very hard and they are tired. VanDriessche noted that "Danny Lucero took three seconds off his best time in the breaststroke." Elkhart Central coach Jason Smith was philosophical. "We know what Riley was doing. They weren't trying to beat us badly, they need to get ready for Penn next week, which will be the meet that decides the NIC. "We aren't discouraged," Smith continued, "we're just trying to improve and aim for the sectionals. If we get one diver back and our other swimmer, we'll see what happens there." Philipe Kurz was a bright spot for the Blazers, taking seconds in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke. Kurz also helped Central place second in the 200 medley and 400 free relays. At South Bend200 medley relay: 1. Riley (Zack Stockman, Danny Lucero-Dixon, Chris Pfaff, Tim Blue) 1:39.12; 2. Elkhart Central (Chris Huang, Juan Ramirez, Philipe Kurz, Andrew Hack) 1:53.42. 200 freestyle: 1. Stockman (R) 1:49.19; 2. Eric Blue (R) 1:54.48. 200 individual medley: 1. T. Blue (R) 1:59.13; 2. Mike Frucci (R) 2:15.52. 50 freestyle: 1. Pfaff (R) 22.09; 2. Karl Weisser (R) 25.61. Diving: 1. David Lewandowski (R) 135.0. 100 butterfly: 1. Lucero-Dixon (R) 56.75; 2. Kurz (EC) 57.01. 100 freestyle: 1. Pfaff (R) 49.81; 2. Ryan Biggs (R) 55.81. 500 freestyle: 1. T. Blue (R) 4:56.76; 2. Weisser (R) 5:23.18. 200 freestyle relay: 1. Riley (Henry Pollock, Jayson Matlock, Shane Doyle, T. Blue) 1:41.03; 2. Riley (Adam Walz, Chris Ballard, E. Blue, Pfaff) 1:14.67. 100 backstroke: 1. Stockman (R) 55.06; 2. Kurz (EC) 1:01.83. 100 breaststroke: 1. Lucero-Dixon (R) 1:03.04; 2. Biggs (R) 1:08.04. 400 freestyle relay: 1. Riley (Doyle, Weisser, Johnson, Biggs) 3:47.97; 2. Elkhart Central (Andrew Hack, Mike Miller, Huang, Kurz) 3:49.11.